Tuesday
of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 330
Lectionary: 330
Solomon
stood before the altar of the LORD
in the presence of the whole community of Israel,
and stretching forth his hands toward heaven,
he said, “LORD, God of Israel,
there is no God like you in heaven above or on earth below;
you keep your covenant of mercy with your servants
who are faithful to you with their whole heart.
“Can it indeed be that God dwells on earth?
If the heavens and the highest heavens cannot contain you,
how much less this temple which I have built!
Look kindly on the prayer and petition of your servant, O LORD, my God,
and listen to the cry of supplication which I, your servant,
utter before you this day.
May your eyes watch night and day over this temple,
the place where you have decreed you shall be honored;
may you heed the prayer which I, your servant, offer in this place.
Listen to the petitions of your servant and of your people Israel
which they offer in this place.
Listen from your heavenly dwelling and grant pardon.”
in the presence of the whole community of Israel,
and stretching forth his hands toward heaven,
he said, “LORD, God of Israel,
there is no God like you in heaven above or on earth below;
you keep your covenant of mercy with your servants
who are faithful to you with their whole heart.
“Can it indeed be that God dwells on earth?
If the heavens and the highest heavens cannot contain you,
how much less this temple which I have built!
Look kindly on the prayer and petition of your servant, O LORD, my God,
and listen to the cry of supplication which I, your servant,
utter before you this day.
May your eyes watch night and day over this temple,
the place where you have decreed you shall be honored;
may you heed the prayer which I, your servant, offer in this place.
Listen to the petitions of your servant and of your people Israel
which they offer in this place.
Listen from your heavenly dwelling and grant pardon.”
Responsorial
PsalmPS 84:3, 4, 5 AND 10, 11
R.
(2) How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord, mighty God!
My soul yearns and pines
for the courts of the LORD.
My heart and my flesh
cry out for the living God.
R. How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord, mighty God!
Even the sparrow finds a home,
and the swallow a nest
in which she puts her young—
Your altars, O LORD of hosts,
my king and my God!
R. How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord, mighty God!
Blessed they who dwell in your house!
continually they praise you.
O God, behold our shield,
and look upon the face of your anointed.
R. How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord, mighty God!
I had rather one day in your courts
than a thousand elsewhere;
I had rather lie at the threshold of the house of my God
than dwell in the tents of the wicked.
R. How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord, mighty God!
My soul yearns and pines
for the courts of the LORD.
My heart and my flesh
cry out for the living God.
R. How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord, mighty God!
Even the sparrow finds a home,
and the swallow a nest
in which she puts her young—
Your altars, O LORD of hosts,
my king and my God!
R. How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord, mighty God!
Blessed they who dwell in your house!
continually they praise you.
O God, behold our shield,
and look upon the face of your anointed.
R. How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord, mighty God!
I had rather one day in your courts
than a thousand elsewhere;
I had rather lie at the threshold of the house of my God
than dwell in the tents of the wicked.
R. How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord, mighty God!
AlleluiaPS 119:36, 29B
R. Alleluia,
alleluia.
Incline my heart, O God, to your decrees;
and favor me with your law.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Incline my heart, O God, to your decrees;
and favor me with your law.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
GospelMK 7:1-13
When
the Pharisees with some scribes who had come from Jerusalem
gathered around Jesus,
they observed that some of his disciples ate their meals
with unclean, that is, unwashed, hands.
(For the Pharisees and, in fact, all Jews,
do not eat without carefully washing their hands,
keeping the tradition of the elders.
And on coming from the marketplace
they do not eat without purifying themselves.
And there are many other things that they have traditionally observed,
the purification of cups and jugs and kettles and beds.)
So the Pharisees and scribes questioned him,
“Why do your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders
but instead eat a meal with unclean hands?”
He responded,
“Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites,
as it is written:
This people honors me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me;
In vain do they worship me,
teaching as doctrines human precepts.
You disregard God’s commandment but cling to human tradition.”
He went on to say,
“How well you have set aside the commandment of God
in order to uphold your tradition!
For Moses said,
Honor your father and your mother,
and Whoever curses father or mother shall die.
Yet you say,
‘If someone says to father or mother,
“Any support you might have had from me is qorban”’
(meaning, dedicated to God),
you allow him to do nothing more for his father or mother.
You nullify the word of God
in favor of your tradition that you have handed on.
And you do many such things.”
gathered around Jesus,
they observed that some of his disciples ate their meals
with unclean, that is, unwashed, hands.
(For the Pharisees and, in fact, all Jews,
do not eat without carefully washing their hands,
keeping the tradition of the elders.
And on coming from the marketplace
they do not eat without purifying themselves.
And there are many other things that they have traditionally observed,
the purification of cups and jugs and kettles and beds.)
So the Pharisees and scribes questioned him,
“Why do your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders
but instead eat a meal with unclean hands?”
He responded,
“Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites,
as it is written:
This people honors me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me;
In vain do they worship me,
teaching as doctrines human precepts.
You disregard God’s commandment but cling to human tradition.”
He went on to say,
“How well you have set aside the commandment of God
in order to uphold your tradition!
For Moses said,
Honor your father and your mother,
and Whoever curses father or mother shall die.
Yet you say,
‘If someone says to father or mother,
“Any support you might have had from me is qorban”’
(meaning, dedicated to God),
you allow him to do nothing more for his father or mother.
You nullify the word of God
in favor of your tradition that you have handed on.
And you do many such things.”
Meditation: "Rejecting
the commandments of God"
What
makes a person unclean or unfit to offer God acceptable worship? The Jews went
to great pains to ensure that their worship would conform to the instructions
which God gave to Moses on Mount Sinai. God's call to his people was a call to
holiness: "be holy, for I am holy" (Leviticus 11:44; 19:2). In their
zeal for holiness many elders developed elaborate traditions which became a
burden for the people to carry out in their everyday lives. The Scribes and
Pharisees were upset with Jesus because he allowed his disciples to break with
their ritual traditions by eating with unclean hands. They sent a delegation
all the way from Jerusalem to Galilee to bring their accusation in a
face-to-face confrontation with Jesus.
Jesus
dealt with their accusation by going to the heart of the matter - by looking at
God's intention and purpose for the commandments. Jesus gave an example of how
their use of ritual tradition excused them from fulfilling the commandment to
honor one's father and mother. If someone wanted to avoid the duty of
financially providing for their parents in old age or sickness they could say
that their money or goods were an offering "given over to God" and
thus exempt from any claim of charity or duty to help others. They broke God's
law to fulfill a law of their own making. Jesus explained that they void God's
command because they allowed their hearts and minds to be clouded by their own
notions of religion.
Jesus
accused them specifically of two things. First of hypocrisy. Like actors, who
put on a show, they appear to obey God's word in their external practices while
they inwardly harbor evil desires and intentions. Secondly, he accused them of
abandoning God's word by substituting their own arguments and ingenious
interpretations for what God requires. They listened to clever arguments rather
than to God's word. Jesus refers them to the prophecy of Isaiah (29:31) where
the prophet accuses the people of his day for honoring God with their lips
while their hearts went astray because of disobedience to God's laws.
If we
listen to God's word with faith and reverence, it will both enlighten our mind
and purify our heart - thus enabling us to better understand how he wants us to
love and obey him. The Lord invites us to draw near to him and to feast at his
banquet table. Do you approach with a clean heart and mind? Ask the Lord to
cleanse and renew you with the purifying fire of his Holy Spirit.
"Lord
Jesus, let the fire of your Holy Spirit cleanse my mind and my heart that I may
love you purely and serve you worthily."
Daily
Quote from the early church fathers: Mammon refuses to provide for parents in old age,
by John Chrysostom (347-407 AD)
"Christ
says, 'Care for the poor' (Matthew 19:21; Mark 10:21; Luke 14:13); Mammon
says, 'Take away even those things the poor possess.' Christ says, 'Empty
yourself of what you have' (Matthew 16:24; Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23); Mammon
says, 'Take also what they possess.' Do you see the opposition, the strife
between them? See how it is that one cannot obey both, but must reject one?...
Christ says, 'None of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your
possessions' (Luke 14:33); Mammon says, 'Take the bread from the hungry.'
Christ says, 'Cover the naked' (Matthew 25:34-40; Isaiah 58:7); the other
says, 'Strip the naked.' Christ says, 'You shall not turn away from your own
family (Isaiah 58:7), and those of your own house' (1 Timothy 5:8;
Galatians 6:10); Mammon says, 'You shall not show mercy to those of your own
family. Though you see your mother or your father in want, despise them' (Mark
7:11)." (excerpt from HOMILIES ON PHILIPPIANS 6.25)
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 9,
MARK 7:1-13
(1 Kings 8:22-23, 27-30; Psalm 84)
(1 Kings 8:22-23, 27-30; Psalm 84)
KEY VERSE: "How well you have set aside the commandment of God in order to uphold your tradition!" (v 9).
TO KNOW: The religious leaders developed elaborate rituals to set themselves apart from "unclean" Gentiles. When Jesus and his disciples were criticized for failing to perform the customary purification practices, he berated the leaders for their hypocrisy. In their slavish obedience to these doctrines, they neglected the heart and purpose of God's Law which was mercy and justice (Is 29:13). Practices of external cleansing were useless if one's heart was impure. Dedicating one's property to God (Hebrew,qorban) so as to avoid supporting needy parents violated God's command. Jesus said that the people nullified God's Law in favor of their interpretations, which suited their own selfish intentions.
TO LOVE: Lord Jesus, help me to examine my motives for all my religious practices.
TO SERVE: Do I give scandal by my hypocritical behavior?
MARDI GRAS -- The Feast before the Fast
"Mardi Gras" means "Fat Tuesday." For Christians, Mardi Gras is the last day to indulge before Ash Wednesday, which starts the sober weeks of fasting that come with Lent. Mardi Gras was formally known as Shrove Tuesday. The word "shrove" comes from "shrive," meaning "the confessions of sins" -- something done in preparation for Lent. Mardi Gras is a traditional holiday celebrated in many of the southern states of the USA, the most famous which takes place in New Orleans, Louisiana. Today people celebrate with parades and masquerade balls where they dress up in costumes. The official colors for Mardi Gras are purple, green, and gold. In 1872 Rex, the King of Carnival, chose these colors to stand for the following: Purple stands for justice, green for faith, and gold for power. The word "carnival" comes from the Latin words meaning "farewell to meat."
Tuesday 9 February 2016
Tue 9th. 1 Kings 8:22-23, 27-30. How lovely is your
dwelling-place, Lord, mighty God—Ps 83(84):3-5, 10-11. Mark 7:1-13.
Your dwelling place—Reading the psalm for today has
put a friend’s song in my head, ‘Even the sparrow’.
‘How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord. Even the
sparrow has found a home at the foot of your altar, Lord.’ The sparrow is known
for being plain, but it’s amazing that even the plainest of birds has a place
in God’s heart. In Solomon’s prayer he realises the magnitude of our Lord, even
heaven, God’s dwelling place, cannot contain Him, much less the temple that
Solomon had built. Solomon is humbled that despite this unfathomable fact, God
gives attention to our prayers and requests for mercy.
We are instructed in today’s gospel to respond to this
gift by putting aside human traditions and honouring God with our hearts not
just our lips. Thank you Lord for my place at your altar, I am humbled by your
love for me, and the honour you bestow upon this humble sparrow.
MINUTE
MEDITATIONS
|
Center of Life
|
Jesus really cannot be merely a part of our life; he must be the
center of our life. Unless we preserve some quiet time each day to sit at his
feet, our action will become distraction, and we’ll be unhappy.
LECTIO DIVINA: MARK 7,1-13
Lectio Divina:
Tuesday, February 9, 2016
1) Opening prayer
Father,
watch over your family
and keep us safe in your care,
for all our hope is in you.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
2) Gospel reading - Mark 7,1-13
The Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered round Jesus, and they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with unclean hands, that is, without washing them. For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, keep the tradition of the elders and never eat without washing their arms as far as the elbow; and on returning from the market place they never eat without first sprinkling themselves. There are also many other observances which have been handed down to them to keep, concerning the washing of cups and pots and bronze dishes. So the Pharisees and scribes asked him, 'Why do your disciples not respect the tradition of the elders but eat their food with unclean hands?'
He answered, 'How rightly Isaiah prophesied about you hypocrites in the passage of scripture: This people honours me only with lip-service, while their hearts are far from me. Their reverence of me is worthless; the lessons they teach are nothing but human commandments. You put aside the commandment of God to observe human traditions.' And he said to them, 'How ingeniously you get round the commandment of God in order to preserve your own tradition! For Moses said: Honour your father and your mother, and, Anyone who curses father or mother must be put to death. But you say, "If a man says to his father or mother: Anything I have that I might have used to help you is Korban (that is, dedicated to God)," then he is forbidden from that moment to do anything for his father or mother. In this way you make God's word ineffective for the sake of your tradition which you have handed down. And you do many other things like this.'
3) Reflection
• The Gospel today speaks about the religious traditions of that time and of the Pharisees who taught this tradition to the people. For example, to eat without washing the hands, as they said, to eat with impure hands. Many of these traditions were separated from life and had lost their significance. But even if this was the state of things, these were traditions kept and taught, either because of fear or because of superstition. The Gospel presents some instructions of Jesus concerning these traditions.
• Mark 7, 1-2: Control of the Pharisees and liberty of the disciples. The Pharisees and some Scribes, who had come from Jerusalem, observed how the disciples of Jesus ate the bread with impure hands. Here there are three points which deserve to be made evident: a) The Scribes were from Jerusalem, from the capital city! This means that they had come to observe and to control what Jesus did. b) The disciples do not wash the hands before eating! This means that being with Jesus impels them to have the courage to transgress the norms which tradition imposed on the people, but that no longer had any sense, any meaning for life. c) The fact of washing the hands, which up until now continues to be an important norm of hygiene, had assumed for them a religious significance which served to control and discriminate persons.
• Mark 7, 3-4: The Tradition of the Ancients. “The Tradition of the Ancients” transmitted norms which had to be observed by the people in order to have the purity asked by the Law. The observance of the law was a very serious aspect for the people of that time. They thought that an impure person could not receive the blessings promised by God to Abraham. The norms on purity were taught in order to open the way to God, source of peace. In reality, instead of being a source of peace, the norms constituted a prison, slavery. For the poor, it was practically impossible to observe the hundreds of norms, of traditions and of laws. For this reason they were considered ignorant and damned persons who did not know the law (Jn 7, 49).
• Mark 7, 5: The Scribes and the Pharisees criticize the behaviour of the disciples of Jesus. The Scribes and Pharisees ask Jesus: Why do your disciples not behave according to the tradition of the Ancients and eat the bread with impure hands? They think that they are interested in knowing the reason for the behaviour of the disciples. In reality, they criticize Jesus because he allows the disciples to transgress the norms of purity. The Pharisees formed a type of confraternity, the principal concern of which was to observe all the laws of purity. The Scribes were responsible for the doctrine. They taught the laws relative to the observance of purity.
• Mark 7, 6-13 Jesus criticizes the incoherence of the Pharisees. Jesus answers quoting Isaiah: This people approaches me only in words, honours me only with lip service, while their hearts are far from me (cf. Is 29, 13). Insisting on the norms of purity, the Pharisees emptied the content of the commandments of God’s Law. Jesus quotes a concrete example. They said: the person, who offers his goods to the Temple, cannot use these goods to help those in greater need. Thus, in the name of tradition they emptied the fourth commandment from its content, which commands to love father and mother. These persons seem to be very observant, but they are so only externally. In their heart, they remain far away from God; as the hymn says: “His name is Jesus Christ and is hungry, and lives out on the sidewalk. And people when they pass by, sometimes do not stop, because they are afraid to arrive late to church!” At the time of Jesus, people, in their wisdom, were not in agreement with everything they were taught. They were hoping that one day the Messiah would come to indicate another way to attain purity. In Jesus this hope becomes a reality.
4) Personal questions
• Do you know any religious tradition today which does not have too much sense, but which continues to be taught?
• The Pharisees were practicing Jews, but their faith was divided, separated from the life of the people. This is why Jesus criticizes them. And today, would Jesus criticize us? In what things?
5) Concluding prayer
Our Lord, how majestic is your name throughout the world!
I look up at your heavens, shaped by your fingers,
at the moon and the stars you set firm-
what are human beings that you spare a thought for them,
or the child of Adam that you care for him? (Ps 8,1.3-4)
Father,
watch over your family
and keep us safe in your care,
for all our hope is in you.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
2) Gospel reading - Mark 7,1-13
The Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered round Jesus, and they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with unclean hands, that is, without washing them. For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, keep the tradition of the elders and never eat without washing their arms as far as the elbow; and on returning from the market place they never eat without first sprinkling themselves. There are also many other observances which have been handed down to them to keep, concerning the washing of cups and pots and bronze dishes. So the Pharisees and scribes asked him, 'Why do your disciples not respect the tradition of the elders but eat their food with unclean hands?'
He answered, 'How rightly Isaiah prophesied about you hypocrites in the passage of scripture: This people honours me only with lip-service, while their hearts are far from me. Their reverence of me is worthless; the lessons they teach are nothing but human commandments. You put aside the commandment of God to observe human traditions.' And he said to them, 'How ingeniously you get round the commandment of God in order to preserve your own tradition! For Moses said: Honour your father and your mother, and, Anyone who curses father or mother must be put to death. But you say, "If a man says to his father or mother: Anything I have that I might have used to help you is Korban (that is, dedicated to God)," then he is forbidden from that moment to do anything for his father or mother. In this way you make God's word ineffective for the sake of your tradition which you have handed down. And you do many other things like this.'
3) Reflection
• The Gospel today speaks about the religious traditions of that time and of the Pharisees who taught this tradition to the people. For example, to eat without washing the hands, as they said, to eat with impure hands. Many of these traditions were separated from life and had lost their significance. But even if this was the state of things, these were traditions kept and taught, either because of fear or because of superstition. The Gospel presents some instructions of Jesus concerning these traditions.
• Mark 7, 1-2: Control of the Pharisees and liberty of the disciples. The Pharisees and some Scribes, who had come from Jerusalem, observed how the disciples of Jesus ate the bread with impure hands. Here there are three points which deserve to be made evident: a) The Scribes were from Jerusalem, from the capital city! This means that they had come to observe and to control what Jesus did. b) The disciples do not wash the hands before eating! This means that being with Jesus impels them to have the courage to transgress the norms which tradition imposed on the people, but that no longer had any sense, any meaning for life. c) The fact of washing the hands, which up until now continues to be an important norm of hygiene, had assumed for them a religious significance which served to control and discriminate persons.
• Mark 7, 3-4: The Tradition of the Ancients. “The Tradition of the Ancients” transmitted norms which had to be observed by the people in order to have the purity asked by the Law. The observance of the law was a very serious aspect for the people of that time. They thought that an impure person could not receive the blessings promised by God to Abraham. The norms on purity were taught in order to open the way to God, source of peace. In reality, instead of being a source of peace, the norms constituted a prison, slavery. For the poor, it was practically impossible to observe the hundreds of norms, of traditions and of laws. For this reason they were considered ignorant and damned persons who did not know the law (Jn 7, 49).
• Mark 7, 5: The Scribes and the Pharisees criticize the behaviour of the disciples of Jesus. The Scribes and Pharisees ask Jesus: Why do your disciples not behave according to the tradition of the Ancients and eat the bread with impure hands? They think that they are interested in knowing the reason for the behaviour of the disciples. In reality, they criticize Jesus because he allows the disciples to transgress the norms of purity. The Pharisees formed a type of confraternity, the principal concern of which was to observe all the laws of purity. The Scribes were responsible for the doctrine. They taught the laws relative to the observance of purity.
• Mark 7, 6-13 Jesus criticizes the incoherence of the Pharisees. Jesus answers quoting Isaiah: This people approaches me only in words, honours me only with lip service, while their hearts are far from me (cf. Is 29, 13). Insisting on the norms of purity, the Pharisees emptied the content of the commandments of God’s Law. Jesus quotes a concrete example. They said: the person, who offers his goods to the Temple, cannot use these goods to help those in greater need. Thus, in the name of tradition they emptied the fourth commandment from its content, which commands to love father and mother. These persons seem to be very observant, but they are so only externally. In their heart, they remain far away from God; as the hymn says: “His name is Jesus Christ and is hungry, and lives out on the sidewalk. And people when they pass by, sometimes do not stop, because they are afraid to arrive late to church!” At the time of Jesus, people, in their wisdom, were not in agreement with everything they were taught. They were hoping that one day the Messiah would come to indicate another way to attain purity. In Jesus this hope becomes a reality.
4) Personal questions
• Do you know any religious tradition today which does not have too much sense, but which continues to be taught?
• The Pharisees were practicing Jews, but their faith was divided, separated from the life of the people. This is why Jesus criticizes them. And today, would Jesus criticize us? In what things?
5) Concluding prayer
Our Lord, how majestic is your name throughout the world!
I look up at your heavens, shaped by your fingers,
at the moon and the stars you set firm-
what are human beings that you spare a thought for them,
or the child of Adam that you care for him? (Ps 8,1.3-4)
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